Morning Report: Spinning Our Wheels on Gang Policing

San Diego’s budget crunch has affected its approach to gang policing in some key ways, Megan Burks reports: The department doesn’t invest enough in deterring young people from joining gangs to begin with, and it can’t fund a full-time gang commission.

Minds Came, Minds Met

Nearly 300 people joined us at Bread & Salt, formerly Cramer’s Bakery, in Logan Heights for our pecha-kucha-style evening highlighting different sides of San Diego culture Thursday night.

Once again, you let us have it this week. The good and the bad. We highlight five of the best comments this week. Dagny Salas included one that wonders how conservatives can be comfortable with a tax hike voters didn’t approve and another that says our public transit system affects attendance at, and passion for, local sporting events.

San Diego Underperforms on Transitional Housing: Many transitional housing programs in San Diego receive federal money. But they’re not meeting the bar set by federal officials: The San Diego programs move 43 percent of transitional housing tenants into permanent housing; they’re supposed to move at least 65 percent.

Ruling Might Turn Tax Voting on Its Head: A judge’s ruling on a tax hike to fund the convention center expansion may open the door to a new way of imposing such charges without a public vote.

The ruling found that a group of hotel owners counted as “the public” in this case. As Scott Lewis explained, that reasoning could be taken even further: “What if all the biggest restaurant chains decided to impose a tax on restaurant bills in San Diego — a tax that would fund a meat distribution plant for all of the biggest restaurants?”

We’re No Tree City USA: An ABC 10 News story said San Diego has more trees than any city in the nation, a claim we Fact Checked and found false.

The city is actually trying to bolster its relatively weak tree population, and arborists say San Diego’s arid climate means it’s not an ideal place for trees to flourish.

Three’s a Crowd in Community Planning: The city wants to save money during the costly business of updating a neighborhood’s community plan by bringing three neighborhoods through the process at once. But community groups in Uptown, Golden Hill and North Park aren’t so sure — they worry their areas’ uniqueness won’t be valued.

• Speaking of community plans and planning groups: Donna Frye laid out her ideas for making them more accessible to the public in a Q-and-A with Andy Keatts.

Quick News Hits

• U-T San Diego’s editorial board announced its support for a state bill that would drastically rein in the use of capital appreciation bonds by school district. We detailed the measure here.

• UCSD’s student government approved a resolution urging the school to stop investing in companies with ties to the West Bank. (Los Angeles Times)